We Can Dream Together
Crystal shares how they first connected with Community Boards & how dreaming strengthens connections across space and time.
In 2012 I became a certified mediator, it had been a dream of mine for a while, but it was financially out of reach. Community Boards, the longest-running nonprofit conflict resolution and restorative justice center in the US made my dream come true by providing me with a scholarship to participate in their mediation training.
Last week, it felt like a circle had been completed, Queering Dreams had the pleasure of dreaming with Community Boards. Much of the work they do is volunteer-based. The leadership at Community Boards wanted to offer their volunteers the gift of dreaming in community, where they could experience feeling held, and take the time to think deeply about their own wants, needs, and desires.
We at Queering Dreams appreciate the work and the mission of Community Boards and we know how difficult it can be to hold space for folks who are in conflict with one another. We also know how important it is because we understand for our dreams of abolition to become reality, we need other pathways to resolve and, maybe, even transform conflict. We believe conflict can strengthen our relations and expand our abilities to live, love, and build outside of the prerogatives of the status quo instead of being a source of punishment and shame.
Dreaming together in community is a space of discovery, and remembering, a space of creation and connection, and quite often a space of joy. Our dreaming session with Community Boards was all that and more. Queerly Complex (aka Jason Wyman) actually got to reconnect with an old friend who they hadn’t seen in over 15 years.
We are intentional about creating time and space for such things. We all got to witness the real warmth and delight of their fond memories and the love and care that remained. As always, it was heart expanding to watch people discover or remember what it feels like to be invited to be vulnerable and to feel safe enough to let themselves be.
In our time together, there were tears and laughter. We shared our disappointments and our hopes and dreams for the future. Some of us got to let go of old stories about ourselves while experiencing the power of being open-hearted to and with ourselves and each other. It was a lovely two hours we got to spend co-creating a space of intimacy, vulnerability, and belonging with comrades who are also doing the hard and necessary work of trying to make a better world.
As the co-founders of Queering Dreams, Queerly Complex and I believe the world is in a place of transformation. We know individuals and organizations alike are experiencing a great deal of upheaval as we decide who and what we want to be while we create something new, something better. We also know many of us are dealing with fear, isolation, and burnout and are struggling to make or even imagine the changes we need for ourselves and for our organizations.
Like everyone else, there are many things we are unsure of as we try to navigate these chaotic times, but there are some things we are very sure of:
Dreaming in community and sharing our dreams creates more connection, more camaraderie, and tenderness towards ourselves and for each other.
How do we know that? Queerly Complex and I have been dreaming in community and with individuals now for over 6yrs, and the one thing we hear over and over again is how much folks need and desire the space and time to dream. Time and time again we have heard what a relief it has been for people to be able to lay their armor down and to just be and to feel safe enough and held enough to do that in community.
Like Community Boards, you can bring dreaming to your organization, group, or community. Just contact us at queeringdreams@gmail.com.
If you are an individual interested in dreaming in community please join us for A Space For Dreaming our monthly pay what you can dreaming session. In fact we will be dreaming together this Friday 5/13, it’s not too late to register. To find out what else we are up to, sign up for our mailing list and follow us on social media.